Ten Minutes
by TL-chan
Summary: All it took was a very bizarre revenge plot and a pair of impatient subordinates for Karigari and Sasagawa to finally get some time alone together.


AN: I was playing with the Japanese Shindan Maker site again. I got a prompt which was just so nonsensical, I couldn't resist playing with it. And this is the result. Set post-movie, as usual.

* * *

"Isn't that…" Sasagawa was just about to head to the station for work when a silver vehicle sped past her, stopping several feet away. She watched as it quickly made an illegal U-turn, this time stopping right in front of her.

Sasagawa didn't have any doubt as to the car's identity. She only hoped its owners were alright, driving around so dangerously. And she was rather relieved that the street wasn't busy at such an early hour, as someone almost certainly would have gotten hurt otherwise.

"Hey! Miss!" From inside, Akira and Yusuke started calling to her, the windows only open a crack.

"What's going on?" Sasagawa asked, smiling at them as she stepped up closer to the street. "Is Dr. Karigari with you?" She expected that he wasn't, but wished that he was.

"No. Umm…" Akira paused. "He…"

"He's busy!" Yusuke finished for him. "That's why we left without him. But more importantly, you have to come with us."

"Uhh…" She was definitely confused, but Sasagawa wanted to say yes. It was only the practical side of her that caused her to hesitate. "You see… I have to get to work. But, if it can wait until later…"

Her mind was immediately jumping around, wondering if she would be able to get out early. If there were no disasters, then perhaps. She couldn't just take a day off without notice, so that was out.

"Sorry, it can't wait," Yusuke replied. "Or Doctor's going to get really mad at us."

"He's already really mad at us," Akira replied.

"Well… what happened?" Sasagawa asked. She still hadn't figured that much out. But, if it was something really serious, perhaps some kind of danger, and Karigari needed her help, how could she possibly say no?

"You'll find out when you get there," said Akira. The Viper doors opened, and he and Yusuke both rushed out. "You know, we're actually here to kidnap you."

"You… what?!" Sasagawa gaped at the two.

"Don't make it sound so harsh!" Yusuke exclaimed. "It's for a really good cause."

"Umm…" Sasagawa sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she wasn't going to get to work. Well, if she had to be kidnapped, it might as well be by friendly wanted criminals.

* * *

When the Viper had begun its descent (the ride went by fast when Sasagawa was having such fun getting to fly to their mysterious destination), they were in a factory area right near the water. Aside from a truck or two driving by, the streets were nearly vacant.

"Is this where your hideout is?" Sasagawa wondered. It wasn't where she would have guessed, but she knew Karigari moved his hideouts around regularly. He probably had to try all kinds of locations.

"Nah, this is just where Doctor was building his new weapon," said Yusuke.

"Yeah, but the hideout isn't too-" Akira was stopped when Yusuke grabbed the wheel from under his hands, diverting the Viper to a sharp left, nearly colliding into a building in the process.

Sasagawa was hugging the back of the seat in front of her, her eyes shut tight.

"Bro, what are you doing?!" Akira exclaimed.

"You can't give away the secret location," Yusuke replied.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He scratched the back of his head nervously. Which required taking his hand from the wheel and only caused the car to fly off course again.

"C-Can we please land already?" Sasagawa peered up at the two of them. She was fine with being kidnapped, but not killed.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," said Yusuke.

* * *

"So… what's this about a weapon?" Sasagawa asked, as she followed the two on ground now. She had almost forgotten, but now she couldn't stop wondering.

"It's some weird thing Doctor built," Akira replied. "It's for revenge."

"But what does it do?" Sasagawa replied. They called it a 'weapon', but… she hoped it wasn't something terrible. If Dr. Karigari made it… well, a part of her believed it couldn't be, but the other part of her knew he was probably capable of destroying the world if he felt like it.

"Well it's right here," said Yusuke. In front of the three was a small building, more like a shack compared to the large plants in the area, made of what looked to be steel.

"It's inside?" she wondered out loud, though her hand was already on the door. She turned at the knob, but it wouldn't open.

"It needs a password," Yusuke said, just as Sasagawa took notice of the keypad to the side of the door. He started fumbling through his pockets until he pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "Doctor made it way too long to remember."

Yusuke quickly typed in a series of numbers. "Try it now."

Sasagawa nodded in affirmation and did so. This time, the knob turned all the way.

"You were wrong, though," Akira said. "The weapon isn't inside. This _is_ the weapon."

As soon as Sasagawa opened the door, she was lightly pushed from behind by the two, causing her to stumble inside. The door was immediately shut.

"Huh?" She was about to turn around until she saw something which made her lose all interest in the door or Yusuke and Akira. "Dr. Karigari!"

He was inside the room, staring down at his phone. It was mostly a vacant room save for the chair he was sitting on and another one beside it.

"Miss!" Karigari nearly dropped the phone, but managed to catch it before any damage could be done.

"D-did I startle you?" she asked, embarrassment shown on her face.

"Not quite," said Karigari. "Rather, I expected this was their intent. But when I get my hands on the two of them, they'll long for the days when their heads were replaced with spare TV screens."

"You… wha…" Sasagawa was almost speechless, trying to process his reply. "Wait, you didn't ask them to bring me here?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Miss," said Karigari. "But I didn't ask them to lock me in here either. I'm glad you arrived, as I would have been quite disappointed when it was time for your Fortune Corner to come on, but you were replaced with someone boring." He held his phone towards her, which had a stream of Akasaka TV playing. Karigari promptly turned it off.

"Your subordinates locked you in here?" Sasagawa didn't even have the focus at the moment to dwell on anything else. "Y-you're saying we're trapped?"

She ran over to the door and tried pushing it open. Indeed, it was locked, and she didn't see a keypad anywhere near the inside doorframe.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," replied Karigari. "While my intelligence far excels the combined meager brain power the two of them possess, they can unfortunately overpower me quite easily. I'm willing to admit my own shortcomings, few as they are."

"Umm… I see," Sasagawa said. She was trying to stay calm, but there was still far too much on her mind. "But, they told me this was a weapon. Is that true?! Are we in danger here?" Maybe not, if Karigari was casually watching TV on his phone and not trying to escape. Or maybe it was because he knew escape was futile, and resigned himself to his demise.

"I did refer to it as a weapon. However, it is nothing more than an ordinary room. Perhaps calling it a tool for revenge would be more accurate. But as it was built specifically for revenge, that's why I call it a weapon. I'm deeply sorry that you got caught up in this, Miss."

"Right."

There was a sweat forming on Karigari's face, and Sasagawa could see that he looked pale. This wasn't helping to ease her nerves.

"Rest assured Miss, the two of us are not in any sort of danger, and I know of a way to escape," Karigari said, taking note of how uncomfortable she clearly was. Fear of the weapon wasn't to blame for his discomfort, though. He was mentally overheating, thinking of how he was ever going to explain the weapon to her. There was no way she wouldn't hate him when he did, or at least feel heavily repulsed, if she didn't already.

"Then what does the weapon do?" Sasagawa asked.

"Well you see, I came up with the idea one day when I was particularly in the mood for revenge, and also quite bored. I hadn't intended to actually create the device, and quite regret doing so now, but that's just how anxious I was." He was shuffling his hands around nervously, barely looking at her. "Coming up with interesting revenge games is an old habit of mine, and I can't exactly go out in public to alleviate boredom much when I'm a wanted criminal and I look like this." He pointed to the mask on his face with his metal hand.

"Dr. Karigari!" Sasagawa's arms were folded, and she stared at Karigari intently. "What does it do?!" She had long-since acknowledged how difficult it was to get answers out of him, perhaps even more difficult than getting them out of his subordinates. But this was vital.

"Yes, yes." Karigari firmly believed that getting the full backstory might help her understand the situation just a little better. But he was well aware that he was stalling. "There are two chairs in this room, as I hope you've noticed." Karigari motioned between the one he was sitting on and the empty chair. "That's because this weapon was designed for two specific people. Kurumada and Saionji."

"Right." Sasagawa walked up to the empty chair. She wasn't sure she should touch it, so she stared at it instead. It didn't seem dangerous, especially when she considered that Karigari had been sitting in the other chair the entire time. "Is it very uncomfortable? It's just an ordinary chair, right?"

"Absolutely an ordinary chair," said Karigari. "And I find it comfortable enough. The material was of fair quality, though I was able to acquire these at a nice discount. I hear they're not in style this season."

Sasagawa nodded. She'd realized the subject was changed again, though this time she was completely at fault for asking. "Then what's the catch?"

"The catch is that there are only two possible methods to leave," he said. "The first is if I were to open it from the outside, something I would have done, so long as Kurumada and Saionji admitted my superiority to them. Something which would be caught on the hidden cameras installed within the walls, for all to see. But as I am trapped inside, that leaves only the second method. The door will open automatically if for ten straight minutes, the two who are trapped inside sit across from each other, gazing into each other's eyes with their fingers intertwined."

"What?!" She'd actually taken a few steps back reflexively. Sasagawa didn't want to take him seriously. But the fact that Karigari's face was flushed completely red, at least as much of it that she could see which wasn't covered by the mask and the phone he suddenly held in front of it made her start to believe he wasn't making the last part up.

"The idea was that it would be humiliating," Karigari continued. "One way or another, their actions would be on camera, so… Well, I told you that I hadn't really intended to make it in the first place."

"But… you did." A part of Sasagawa was still desperate to believe he was making the whole thing up.

"Yes, but my real mistake was letting those two idiots know about it before I scrapped the entire room. But as I said, they have the brawn while I have the brain. I needed someone to help me with the construction."

"Well… it's silly, but…" Sasagawa tried to imagine what Karigari instructed. Imagining Kurumada and Saionji just made her head spin, but imagining her and Karigari in their place… it only served to turn her face as red as his still was. "It's only ten minutes."

"Miss, what are you insinuating?!" Karigari exclaimed. "Attempting such a method is absolutely out of the question. I wouldn't dare to!" He got up out of the chair.

"Do I disgust you that much?!" Sasagawa only found herself angry over his adamant refusal. "I thought you liked me!"

"I… You…" Karigari stumbled backwards, tripping on the chair as he tried to think of the words to say. He didn't mean to offend her. And what did she mean by 'I thought you liked me'? Most likely, she was referring to a platonic sense. And it was true. True in both senses, but he couldn't let that get to his head. "Miss, please don't be angry with me. What I meant by that is, I would never put you through such humiliation. I respect you far too much for that."

Hearing this did help to calm Sasagawa a bit. But only a bit.

"But you could delete the footage from the cameras," she said. "No one will know, except for us. And… it's a little weird, but it's not really something harmful."

"Yes, but…" She had a point, but Karigari couldn't even imagine it without wanting to curl up and die. He loved Sasagawa. He loved to watch her on TV every day. But to physically be in front of her, to gaze at her like a lover, to hold her hand… He was so light-headed trying to imagine, he sat himself down in the chair, slowly breathing in and out. This was a chance he couldn't miss. He wanted a moment like this with her more than anything. He knew exactly what his subordinates were thinking, trapping the two of them in here together. It was all for his sake, allowing him to have the chance to do something he'd never have the nerves to do on his own. He should be thanking them, not plotting their deaths. Yet here he was, having a near panic attack.

"I'm not going to stay trapped in this room forever!" Sasagawa's cheeks were puffed up in indignation. She sat down in the empty chair, took Karigari's hands in hers, and stared him in the eye.

It took only seconds for the both to look away, blushing.

"It won't work if we're not gazing," Karigari said, even though he knew he was just as much to blame.

"Right," said Sasagawa. She turned her head back immediately.

Now, she had to focus on staring into Karigari's eyes… well, eye… He only had one, and the yellow shape on the mask which covered the left side of his face. Sasagawa supposed his eye looked nice enough. It was just an eye, really. Nothing special. Not like a gorgeous sapphire pool one could lose themselves in. The kind you read about in romance novels. Did those exist outside of romance novels? When she actually considered it, she couldn't think of anyone she'd met with eyes like that. Not that she'd spent much time staring into anyone's eyes. Even Cyclone Interceptor's eyes, which were just glass lights affixed to the front, probably. Like the part over Karigari's left eye.

Sasagawa found herself looking more closely at that than his remaining eye. What was underneath? A hole? Had he replaced it with a glass eye? Probably not, if he wore the mask. Maybe he did have an eye underneath, and was simply covering up facial scarring.

"Hey… Dr. Karigari." Perhaps it wasn't her place to ask, but it wasn't exactly as if there was much else to do. "About your eye. Is it…"

"It's probably exactly as you imagine," he replied. "I don't want to upset you with all the gritty details. That's why I cover it up."

"I wouldn't have been upset if you told me," she replied. "I wanted to know. Not just today. I've wondered for a long time."

"It's gone, just like my hand," replied Karigari. He flinched as he glanced down at it, clutched to her hand of flesh. "I apologize if it's uncomfortable. The sensors in my prosthetic hand are quite powerful, so I can usually tell approximately how tightly I'm holding onto something. But if you would prefer, I could loosen my grip." He didn't want to, though. He was already dreading the part when the ten minutes were up, when the door opened and she released his hands for good, running away from him.

"No, it's fine," said Sasagawa. Her gaze diverted down towards it, but she shot her head back up at Karigari immediately when she realized. Hopefully whatever strange mechanisms Karigari installed wouldn't count that as a violation and reset the time. Still, she thought of his hand now, as she felt it in her own, felt the difference in her other hand, which touched Karigari's real hand. In a sense, she thought the metal hand was rather cool. But thinking about what happened to him, vivid memories of that night still trapped in her head as if it occurred yesterday, she couldn't stop the stinging in her heart. Nor the tears which began to well up in her eyes.

"It's not fine," she corrected herself. "You shouldn't be holding me with that hand at all. You should be looking at me with both eyes."

"Miss!" Karigari hadn't expected such a reaction from her. He would have let go on the spot, if not for the requirements.

Sasagawa wasn't really crying. She was able to stop herself, but calming herself was a different story. "Why did you have to go then? If I could have taken your hand then, I would have stopped you from flying into the Tower of Babel!"

"And then the world would have been destroyed, and the both of us would be dead right now. I hope you can understand why I had no other choice, Miss." Karigari could feel Sasagawa's hands shaking in his. Or maybe it was the shaking of his own hands. He couldn't tell. But as long as he was captive in front of her, he had no choice but to face her, to speak the truth.

"Th-that's exactly what I mean!" Sasagawa exclaimed, glaring at him. "The way you say right now, matter-of-factly, the world was going to be destroyed that night! You never told me about what happened to your eye, just like you never told me what was happening that night. What Ark really was and why the pole shifted and why people were turning into metal! And everything else you know! You just hide from me and built secret weapons so I get trapped in a room and can't get out until I accomplish some nonsensical task! Why did I fall in love with such a self-centered jerk?!"

"Miss, if your voice gets any louder, you'll shatter the cameras," Karigari replied. It had taken him a moment in his shock to even register the last part of her tirade. But when he did, Karigari blinked, expecting that when he opened his eyes, he would awake from a dream and be back in his hideout. He wasn't. "D-did you say… love?"

"I take it back!" she declared, the rules being all that prevented her from turning her head in anger.

"Y-You take it back?!" Now, Karigari was hoping this would still manage to turn into a dream.

"Right! You're not at all cool like Cyclone Interceptor! Besides, if you really did like me, you could have told me! But you don't tell me anything. All you care about is your dumb revenge."

"Miss…" Karigari half spoke, half whimpered. But, he had to do something. He couldn't be so pathetic. "First of all, Cyclone Interceptor and the rest of the Mobile Rescue Police could answer all of your questions about Ark and that incident at the Tower of Babel. But they chose to keep it a secret as well. And much as I disagree with them on many levels, I understand their reasoning. That information is confidential, frightening, and quite unbelievable if not for that fact that my research could prove it all to be true. Secondly, I believe someone like you could handle the truth better than most. I'll gladly tell you everything. 'Everything I know', as you put it. But seeing as I am the Number One Genius Scientist in the World, who knows close to every fact imaginable, that will take longer than ten minutes. More like an eternity. Perhaps we can get married? Th-then we'll have all the time in the world. Miss, I-"

"Y-you mean it?" Sasagawa didn't care what he had to say next. Was he just joking this time? The conditions of the weapon hadn't been a joke, but… either way, he'd sort of proposed, even if it was far from in a traditional way. She wasn't letting him take it back. Sasagawa's grip on his hands tightened.

"Yes, I absolutely meant it," said Karigari. There was suddenly a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Hope that still wavered as he gazed at her. He was taunted more the longer he did by the threat of rejection. If he took the odds scientifically, they were high. About 99 percent. Yet sometimes, that one percent of unpredictability won out. "Please don't take this as a real proposal. I'd rather do it the old-fashioned way. With a ring. When we're not in captivity. And since you took back your confession, now certainly wasn't the right time for-"

"Yes! I'll marry you!" Sasagawa exclaimed. "I take back taking it back." Her eyes were wide with excitement. Among all the strange things that had happened already this day, the last thing she expected was to receive a marriage proposal. Or an offer for a proposal, rather. Karigari never did anything the direct way. Though, she had already just accepted. This was the sort of romantic situation she'd always dreamed of.

"Then I'll propose properly right away, Miss. Ten minutes can't go fast enough," Karigari said. His face was still red, but he couldn't stop grinning. "Well, I suppose we can get started now to kill time. You see, Ark was the name of a super-"

"Dr. Karigari, wait!" Sasagawa interrupted. "Let's just keep gazing for a few more minutes." At that moment, she was actually starting to enjoy the rules of game.


End file.
